Ursuline Nuns in Galveston
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In January 1847 seven nuns of the Ursuline Order, the first order of religious women in Texas, came to Galveston and established a convent and academy. The school opened with 25 students in February 1847, and quickly added more pupils, some of whom boarded. In addition to educating the youth of the area, the Ursuline nuns ministered to the community through numerous tribulations. During yellow fever epidemics of 1847, 1853, 1858, and 1868, the convent served as a hospital. Both Union and Confederate soldiers were treated by the nuns during the Civil War without regard for the sisters' personal safety. The convent and academy also provided shelter to the citizens of Galveston when hurricanes struck the area. During a hurricane in 1900 more than 1,000 people found shelter in the Ursuline building, the only structure standing near the Gulf area. The nuns rescued many people, at times risking their own lives. The nuns set about in purposeful activity following each trial. The Ursuline Academy continued until the 1960s when it became part of the Catholic school system. The sisters staffed the parochial schools. The number of Ursuline nuns dwindled until 1993 when the last sister left the area, signaling the end of an era. (1997)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In January 1847 seven Ursuline nuns — the first order of religious women in Texas — arrived in Galveston and opened a convent and academy, beginning with 25 pupils. For well over a century the sisters educated the island's youth while serving the wider community through catastrophe after catastrophe: their convent became a hospital during the yellow fever epidemics of 1847, 1853, 1858, and 1868, treated both Union and Confederate wounded during the Civil War, and sheltered more than a thousand people during the devastating 1900 hurricane. The last Ursuline sister left Galveston in 1993, closing an era of service that had lasted nearly 150 years.
Why it matters
The Ursulines' long ministry of teaching and heroic disaster relief reflects the outsized role Catholic sisters played in building schools, hospitals, and refuges across nineteenth-century America.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · 1900 Galveston hurricane
- · Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Ursuline Convent and Academy
Galveston, TX
In January 1847, seven Ursuline nuns arrived from New Orleans at a bishop's request and opened a convent and girls' academy in a former judge's home in Galveston, beginning with twenty-five students. Through hurricanes and repeated yellow fever epidemics the sisters sheltered orphans and, during the Civil War, nursed wounded soldiers from both sides. Later generations knew the towering Gothic academy designed by architect Nicholas Clayton, which stood as a place of refuge in storms until Hurricane Carla forced its end in 1961.
Olga Samaroff
Galveston, TX
Born Lucy Hickenlooper and raised in a piano-filled home in Galveston's wealthy Silk Stocking District, she became, in 1895, the first American woman to win a scholarship to the Conservatoire de Paris. To launch her American career she reinvented herself as Olga Samaroff, going on to perform at Carnegie Hall, the Met, and Royal Albert Hall. She later taught at the Juilliard School, wrote several books on music, and founded a competition to champion American musicians.
Mathilda Wehmeyer German-American Kindergarten School
Galveston, TX
Born in Bremen, Germany, Mathilda Wehmeyer arrived in Galveston in 1870 and advertised teaching for young children, especially those of the city's large German-American community, using the German concept of 'kindergarten.' After the 1885 fire destroyed 40 blocks of the East End and her first house, she built an Italianate home and school in 1887 and taught there until 1898. The Great Storm of 1900 finally displaced her from the house.
Dominican Sisters Congregation of the Sacred Heart
Galveston, TX
At the invitation of Galveston's bishop, twenty Dominican sisters left their Ohio convent and arrived by train and horse-drawn carriage in 1882 to open a school on the island. Within days they founded a convent and Sacred Heart Academy, educating girls for generations even as the catastrophic 1900 hurricane forced the convent's relocation. Through mergers and moves the sisters' educational work endured, eventually reaching dioceses across Texas, California, and Guatemala.